Chinese Orange Chicken
Not even Panda Express can beat this homemade orange chicken!
Today was just one of those days. My photography shoot went awry. I burned myself when frying an egg. There was an ant party in my kitchen trash. I hit the worst kind of traffic on a Saturday afternoon for a 3 mile drive. The list goes on.
The highlight of my day was that I still had some of this orange chicken left. This is a Chinese favorite of mine, especially from Panda Express, involving crisp, fried chicken bites smothered in a wonderfully sweet and tangy orange sauce. There is a bit of prep work involved here but at the end of the day, nothing beats homemade, right? And believe me when I say that not even Panda Express will beat this version!
Chinese Orange Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cornstarch, divided
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon sesame seeds
- 1 green onion, thinly sliced
For the marinade
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- ½ cup sugar
- ⅓ cup distilled white vinegar
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha, or more, to taste
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
Instructions
- To make the marinade, whisk together chicken broth, orange juice, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, orange zest, Sriracha, ginger and white pepper in a large bowl.
- In a gallon size Ziploc bag or large bowl, combine chicken and 2/3 cup of the marinade; marinate for at least 30 minutes, turning the bag occasionally. Drain the chicken from the marinade, discarding the marinade.
- Heat remaining marinade in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir in 2 tablespoons cornstarch combined with 2 tablespoons water. Cook, stirring frequently, until thickened about 1-2 minutes; keep warm.
- Working one at a time, dip the chicken into the eggs, then dredge in remaining 1 cup cornstarch, pressing to coat.
- Heat vegetable oil in a large saucepan. Working in batches, add chicken and fry until golden brown and cooked through, about 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; discard excess oil.
- Serve chicken immediately, tossed or drizzled with the marinade, garnished with sesame seeds and green onion, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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This was SO delicious! A little bit of work but so worth it. I made it with some copy cat Panda chow mein noodles. We had leftovers and I reheated them in the oven like someone suggested. It was ok, definitely not as good as fresh.
So happy you liked it!
This recipe LOOKED amazing but was a flop. The corn starch made the chicken never turn “Golden” it just turned out as fried, white, and tasted like corn starch. I tried to use less to coat th chicken and it was just a disaster. The sauce was a gelatinous blob and didn’t work out either. I really had high hopes for this recipe and the flavors were all there but I feel there has to be a better alternative to cor starch to bread the chicken and there has to be some tweaking to the amounts used in the recipe.
Tori – I’m so sorry to hear that happened! But it sounds like maybe your cornstarch had expired?
I had similar results with the chicken, Tori. The chicken never got golden, it stayed white. My cornstarch isn’t even close to expired. I always have great results with Chungah’s recipes but this one doesn’t look at all like the photos. It tastes good…just doesn’t look appealing.
Made this tonight and it was wonderful! Thanks for this recipe. Doing the egg/corn starch part was a pain but worth it. I’m also glad I read one of the comments that told how she reheated it.
Would this recipe work with an air fryer??
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, we cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
This dish was amazing! I have never fried anything before and made quite a mess with the cornstarch LOL . But the end result was an amazing recipe I will use again and again. THANK YOU
Tried this tonight I had a plethora of chicken breast in the house and I saw other recipes for Orange Chicken but chose this one because it looked simpler and didn’t have me running all over creation for ingredients. This was wonderful and I ate it with Zucchini noodles to give it more a freshness with it and to keep it relatively low carb, although pretty sure cornstarch probably kills the carb content, but that’s another story. lol
I recall this recipe was baked for 50 minutes to develop the sauce and crispiness…did you change the recipe?
Nope – the recipe has not been changed. 🙂
I wanted to make this tonight but I’m tired lol. Would it be ok to let it marinade overnight ?
Allyse | Foodie| Seamstress | Blogger
http://www.allysejolie.com
Yes, of course!
Made this last night for dinner and it was awesome! Great flavor. I’m pinning all your other recipes to try too! Thanks! Great website!
Do not compare any of your dishes to Panda Express. It is the McDonalds of Asian foods and that is a low standard. You perform at a far higher level.
I totally agree!
Made the recipe last night along with your spicy chicken potstickers and korean beef bowl. What a glorious feast!!!!! Warming up the few leftovers for breakfast. Lol….. You are the rockstar of food.
I. Love. This. Recipe. I make it all the time. I am wondering, though, about using the marinade on some chicken and cooking it in my crock pot to serve over rice. It wouldn’t be breaded or fried, obviously, so maybe a little healthier? I’m thinking this would be delicious served over jasmine rice. Anyone tried something similiar, or have any input?
Made this for dinner tonight but we have large household. All adults so I doubled the batch. It worked out wonderfully. Made fried rice with snap peas to go along with. So delicious. Thank you!
Chungah this turned out delicious! The best orange chicken I’ve ever made, I don’t know why I waited so long to try it. Thank you for sharing your talents! I’m an awesome baker, but need ideas in the cooking dept. I’m always happy with your recipes, and my family too. Also, thank you for having an easy to navigate website. Some blogs have so many ads you can’t read the blog because the page is constantly refreshing.
This looks delicious. I’m going to try putting the chicken in my air frier. Do you know if any of your readers have tried that?
I don’t think so but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work! Let me know how it turns out!
Perfect. Didn’t have any chicken broth so I made some Asian style. Used fresh ginger in the marinade because I didn’t have powdered. Kept the sauce hot in a thermos- one of those insulated coffee mugs would have worked too. I’m usually a little bit of a critic- absolutely would not change a thing. Made this just for two so I put the marinating chicken in the freezer for another show stopper. Thanks for a terrific recipe!
I made this last night with no modifications to the recipe and it was PERFECT! Thank you so much. My only feedback is that your site tends to crash my browser or just freeze whether I’m looking from my phone or computer. 🙁 I keep coming back though – your recipes are amazing. Thanks again.
Pretty darn good! I may have put too much orange zest in because there was a slight bitterness. I also had a hard time telling how much to save for the marinade glaze and didn’t have any for left overs. Darn good first attempt, though!
Amazing! This recipe is my family’s favorite. Definitely worth the prep work. I make it quite often. Sometimes I will make the sauce the night before which cuts prep time in half on a work night. I think it is delicious even when I don’t have time to marinate the chicken. Try this!!
Tonight I’m making your shrimp with walnuts but this will be my next one unless I go for coconut shrimp instead–there aren’t enough days in the week to try all your yummy recipes! I love orange pork and shrimp, too, will try those another time. I so appreciate your website because all the Chinese restaurants around here are bland and boring.